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I remember when I first played the original Persona
4. It was the first game in the Shin Megami Tensei franchise that I’d ever played. 5 hours in,
and I fell in love. When I finally got my Vita recently, Persona 4 Golden was
the first game I got with it. And I managed to fall in love with it again.
The
story begins as the protagonist, a transfer student, arrives in Inaba. Soon
after he arrives, a series of mysterious murders occur. On top of that, the
murders seem to be linked to a strange phenomenon called the “Midnight
Channel”. Rumors stated that looking into a turned off TV at midnight on a
rainy day would show a silhouette of your soul mate. After investigating the
rumor, the protagonist and his friends find themselves in an alternate world
where they gain a new power. Thanks to the new power that he and his friends
discover, called “Persona”, the group gains a unique responsibility: to solve
this seemingly supernatural case and catch the killer. While the voice acting
and characters are good, the plot ends up becoming repetitive; the formula
basically boils down to: rescue someone, wait for the next victim to appear on
the Midnight Channel, and repeat.
Gameplay:
High School life
While
the main plot is only decent at best due to repetitive elements, the social
link system is where the game really shines. In order to create stronger
Personas, the protagonist has to befriend various people representing certain
Tarot Arcana. The characters in the social links all have realistic traits, day
to day issues, and quirks that you’d expect from any person in real life. Their
characterization is executed very well; I found myself getting attached to all
of the social link characters quite quickly. The system as a whole is something
that adds what many JRPGs today seem to lack: good characters and realistic
development for them.
Gameplay:
Dungeons
The
second portion of gameplay is a dungeon crawler, with a combat system based off
of the mainline Shin Megami Tensei games. Dungeons are all randomly generated,
but have a unique theme for each one. However, the dungeons end up being
somewhat bland; aside from a few gimmick floors here and there, the objective
is always to simply move onto the next floor, and there are no unique puzzles
to solve.
The
combat system is a turn-based affair with a twist: the 1-more system.
Basically, when a character or enemy is struck by a critical hit or elemental
weakness, the attacker gets an extra turn. If all of the enemies are knocked
down, your team can launch an “All-Out Attack” that does high damage to all
enemies. The 1- more system can and WILL quickly turn the tide of the battle.
If you’re ambushed and the first enemy attacks with an element you’re weak too,
it could lead to the whole party being wiped out before you even get a turn.
Other than that, however, the combat system isn’t something we haven’t seen
before.
Each
character wields a unique Persona with its own set of skills. However, the
protagonist has the ability to switch Personas at will, and can collect
multiple different Personas to fuse together to create stronger ones. This
allows for a lot of variety and versatility, as the protagonist can be molded
and customized to fit any situation.
Sound/Music/Voice
Acting
The
music in this game is J-Pop done mostly by Shoji Meguro. Most of the tracks are
upbeat, fitting the game’s lighter atmosphere (compared to other SMT titles).
The voice acting, however, is the main highlight of the sound department. The
voices are all really well done with a few exceptions, and even then it’s still
passable in those cases. It really helps bring the game’s world and characters
to life.
Additions/Improvements
If
you’re coming from the Playstation 2 version like I did, you’ll find that there
are a lot more improvements than at first glance. Right from the start of the
game, you’ll notice several minor graphical upgrades, and the game screen is
much less “foggy” than in the original version. There are also two new social
links, as well as Personas to go with their respective arcana. There are also a
few new musical tracks, as well as several new events. Roughly one in-game
month was also added, allowing for more time to max out social links. Overall,
I loved the additions that were made, and it’s become impossible for me to go
back to the original version as a result.
Length
Persona
4 Golden has a lot to do. Dungeons can easily last longer than they appear due
to initial enemy difficulty, and social links plus sidequests will eat up hours
of your time if you choose to read all of the dialogue. On top of that, you’ll
most likely spend a lot of time trying to create stronger Personas. Even though
I already knew what I was in for (having played the original PS2 version), I
still ended up taking a whopping 65 hours to beat the game. And even then,
there’s New Game Plus (which allows you to carry over your Personas among other
things), so you’ll be spending a lot of time on this game.
Verdict:
9.5/10
Persona 4
Golden, while not perfect, comes really damn close. Although the flawed main
story and somewhat weak dungeon crawler gameplay bog the game down a little
bit, the overall experience is still something that’s hard to find these days. Whether
you’re a veteran of the game or a first time player, Persona 4 Golden is an
excellent choice if you have a PS Vita. With many social links, Personas, and
other features, you’re going to spend a long time on this game. I absolutely
recommend that you pick this one up.
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